The wife brought home a couple steaks. 2" thick Porterhouses. Figured since it's a holiday weekend, I'd reverse sear them on the Mini.
The poor unsuspecting victims.
We'd planned to do them Sunday but the weather was uncooperative. I'd already salted them, so I just put them back in the fridge.
On Monday, I fired up the mini with KBB (all I had) and pecan chunks. 250° was the magic number, and the PartyQ had the mini to temp and blowing sweet blue smoke in short order.
Put the meat on at 5:50pm. Since the smoker was running, I put some chix thighs on too. 4 in a pan, skin down on the lower rack for a play on "cupcake chicken" and 2 on the upper rack. Had my temp probe clipped under the upper rack.
I was expecting about an hour on the steaks, as that's usually the case at that temp. I usually take steaks to 125° when I reverse sear them. Then I let them rest before searing. All went according to plan.
Almost exactly an hour later, the steaks were, in fact, at 125° and the chicken on the top rack was 155°. The ones in the pan on the lower rack temped at just under 170°. Since I planned to sear the chicken anyway, I pulled everything off. And here is where I committed my heinous crime. I wrapped the steaks in HD foil while I packed everything up to take back to the apartment. They ended up being wrapped for about 30 minutes. Normally, I just let the meat hang out and cool down, loosely covered on the counter. Then I sear them in a hot cast iron pan and all is well. But the extended nap in foil seems to have multiplied the carryover and what should have been medium rare was more like medium well.
My usual searing process, in brown butter. Since I'd salted the meat the day before, I only put a light coat of pepper on one side, this is the naked side.
The "cupcake" chicken, after a trip under the broiler. It turned out well. Skin was very tender.
Lesson learned. The steaks were beautifully tender and the flavor was quite good. They were just overdone. The wife tried to hide her disappointment, but she's not a great actress. We ate a little and put the rest away for steak Caesar salad. The chicken will end up as egg rolls and smoked Kung Pao chicken later this week.
By the way, if you're wondering why I didn't just sear the steaks on the grill, the coals were getting pretty low and it's a Smokey Joe Gold, so no bottom vent. There just wasn't enough heat, and I was (ironically) afraid I'd overcook them waiting for the crust to form.
The poor unsuspecting victims.
We'd planned to do them Sunday but the weather was uncooperative. I'd already salted them, so I just put them back in the fridge.
On Monday, I fired up the mini with KBB (all I had) and pecan chunks. 250° was the magic number, and the PartyQ had the mini to temp and blowing sweet blue smoke in short order.
Put the meat on at 5:50pm. Since the smoker was running, I put some chix thighs on too. 4 in a pan, skin down on the lower rack for a play on "cupcake chicken" and 2 on the upper rack. Had my temp probe clipped under the upper rack.
I was expecting about an hour on the steaks, as that's usually the case at that temp. I usually take steaks to 125° when I reverse sear them. Then I let them rest before searing. All went according to plan.
Almost exactly an hour later, the steaks were, in fact, at 125° and the chicken on the top rack was 155°. The ones in the pan on the lower rack temped at just under 170°. Since I planned to sear the chicken anyway, I pulled everything off. And here is where I committed my heinous crime. I wrapped the steaks in HD foil while I packed everything up to take back to the apartment. They ended up being wrapped for about 30 minutes. Normally, I just let the meat hang out and cool down, loosely covered on the counter. Then I sear them in a hot cast iron pan and all is well. But the extended nap in foil seems to have multiplied the carryover and what should have been medium rare was more like medium well.
My usual searing process, in brown butter. Since I'd salted the meat the day before, I only put a light coat of pepper on one side, this is the naked side.
The "cupcake" chicken, after a trip under the broiler. It turned out well. Skin was very tender.
Lesson learned. The steaks were beautifully tender and the flavor was quite good. They were just overdone. The wife tried to hide her disappointment, but she's not a great actress. We ate a little and put the rest away for steak Caesar salad. The chicken will end up as egg rolls and smoked Kung Pao chicken later this week.
By the way, if you're wondering why I didn't just sear the steaks on the grill, the coals were getting pretty low and it's a Smokey Joe Gold, so no bottom vent. There just wasn't enough heat, and I was (ironically) afraid I'd overcook them waiting for the crust to form.
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